Weekend winners Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori both strengthened their position for the November ATP Finals in London. Murray’s Shenzhen title moved him up one spot to No. 10, just 105 points from No. 8 Tomas Berdych.

US Open finalist Nishikori won the Kuala Lumpur title which moved him closer to No. 5 Marin Cilic and gave him some extra padding between him and Ferrer/Berdych.

Both titles yesterday were worth 250 ranking points. This week the points double to 500 at Tokyo and Beijing. And next week 1,000 points will be awarded to the Shanghai champion. David Ferrer already lost earlier today in Tokyo, so there’s a good chance he’ll slide out of the Top 8 next week.

Of the Top 13 players in the hunt, only Roger Federer is not playing this week. Current No. 1 Novak Djokovic assessed the importance of the London event and playing tournaments to try to qualify.

“That’s why Murray is playing the week before Beijing in Shenzhen,” Djokovic said. “That’s why most of the players, the ones that are in contention to get to the final eight, are definitely trying to perform their best tennis at this time of the year. It is the crown for the whole year’s achievement, being part of the World Tour Finals in London.”

Happy for Murray and Kei. Not having won a title in over a year, Andy badly needed this win for his confidence. I reckon he’ll win one more title before the end of the year.

Nishikori! Had a great opportunity to become the first man from Asia to win A Grand Slam title in New York. But then he let the pressure of the big occasion get to him and didn’t play half as good as he could have. He needed to play his best to have any chance a on song Marin Cilic. But I guess he was happy to reach his first slam final which no one had expected of him before. But I think we will see compete in at least one more Grand Slam final.